Magazine Fall 2023 Faculty News
Scott Anderson (art) created an illustration of Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon for the front page of the business section of the New York Times and also painted a portrait illustration of TV writer/ director Mike White for the Los Angeles Times.
Holly Beers (religious studies) presented a paper, “Filling Up the Sufferings of Christ: Reading Colossians 1:24 with Minoritized Voices,” at the annual Society for Pentecostal Studies meeting. She published an article, “Demons and Exorcism,” in the revised “Dictionary of Paul and His Letters” (IVP Academic).
Stephen Contakes (chemistry) and Michael Everest (chemistry) presented a workshop, “Introduction to the Science-Faith Conversation and the ASA,” at the annual meeting of the American Scientific Affiliation, a professional organization of Christians in the sciences.
Lisa DeBoer (art) lectured about “Virtue and Virtuosity: Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel” at the Old Mission Santa Barbara in association with its exhibition of full-sized reproductions of the main ceiling panels.
Mike Di Fuccia (Martin Institute) directs the Martin Institute’s Cultura Fellowship program, a two-year spiritual formation development process for emerging Christian leaders.
Deborah Dunn (communication studies) co-hosted two sessions at the National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation in Atlanta on connecting and building a network for undergraduate students.
Michael Everest (chemistry) chairs the Board of Directors of the American Scientific Affiliation. He published a paper, “What Is the Structure of a Polymer in Solution?” with Abigail Toves ’24 in the Journal of Chemical Education.
Douglas Hector Fontes (engineering) received a STTR/NASA grant to fund research in plume surface interaction associated with rocket jets on the moon. He presented a paper at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition.
Daniel Gee (music) led the College Choir and Chamber Singers in five concerts in May during a tour in Japan. The repertoire included two of Gee’s compositions, including a collaborative composition with Randy VanderMey, English professor emeritus. He served as assistant conductor in the Santa Barbara Symphony’s performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Adam Goodworth (kinesiology) was lead author of an article, “Characteristics of inter-subject variability in feedback control of standing balance,” published in the Journal of Neurophysiology. He co-authored a study, “Quantifying states and transitions of emerging postural control for children not yet able to sit independently,” published in Sensors.
Jonathan Hicks (theatre arts) has been appointed dispatch officer to the union for professional stagehands for the California central coast and serves as the local’s secretary-treasurer for more than 300 regional workers.
Russell Howell (mathematics) spoke at the Third International Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Istanbul. He was named as the first Brabenec Lecturer for the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences.
Daniel Jensen (engineering) co-authored “Design Innovation Methodology Handbook” (2nd ed., Singapore University of Technology and Design 2023)
Blake Victor Kent (sociology) published two papers: “Does Religious Service Attendance Modify the Relationship between Everyday Discrimination and Risk of Obesity? Results from the Study on Stress, Spirituality and Health”; and “Why is Religious Attendance Linked to More Anxiety in U.S. South Asians? The Mediating Role of Congregational Neglect,” both in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Judy L. Larson (art/museum) chairs the board of Old Mission Santa Barbara.
Yi-Fan Lu (biology) and his students published a preprint article in bioRxiv that Annals of Medicine and Surgery later accepted. He presented the research examining neurological phenotypes induced by the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein at the American Society for Microbiology-Microbe Meeting.
Paul Mori (music) conducts the Santa Barbara Prime Time Band and spoke to News Channel 3 about the band’s Fourth of July performance at the courthouse.
Mark Nelson (philosophy) published a paper, “Absolutism, Utilitarianism, and Agent- Relative Constraints,” in the International Philosophical Quarterly.
Edd Noell (economics and business) presented “Upholding an Inviolable Right to Labor: Adam Smith’s Case for Widening the Poor’s Economic Opportunity in Light of Benevolent and Malevolent Institutions” at the Adam Smith 300 Academic Workshop, celebrating Smith’s tercentenary in Scotland.
The San Diego Law Review accepted a paper by Don Patterson (computer science), “Turning Fake Data into Fake News: The AI Training Set as a Trojan Horse of Misinformation.” The University of Missouri–Kansas Law Review accepted his paper, “Late-Binding Scholarship in the Age of AI: Navigating Legal and Normative Challenges of a New Form of Knowledge Production.”
Steve Porter (Martin Institute) spoke on the cultural implications of the disappearance of moral knowledge at the Dallas Willard Ministries School of Kingdom Living and at the Dietrich von Hildebrand/Dallas Willard colloquium. He published “The Future of Christian Spiritual Formation” in the Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care.
Sandra Richter (religious studies) lectured for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Old Testament Research Seminar about “The Bible and Sustainable Land Use” and was featured on the “Truth Over Tribe” and “The Cross and the Gavel” podcasts about the importance of environmental stewardship within the Christian community.
Steve Rogers (psychology) and co-author Valerie Swisher ’22 published an article, “The Impact of Family Functioning on Help-Seeking Behavior and Symptom Severity in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,” in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
Edward Song (philosophy) organized a multi-day session about “God-Given Revelation and the Free Methodist Way” for the General Conference of the Free Methodist Church in the USA in Orlando. The Journal of Moral Philosophy published his paper, “Fairness, Benefits, and Voluntary Acceptance.”
Mitchell Thomas (theater arts) played Astrov in Lit Moon Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” which featured artists from the U.S., Armenia, Finland and Russia, also presented at an international theater festival in Yerevan, Armenia.
Tim VanHaitsma (kinesiology) published “Three weeks of mental training changes physiological outcomes during a time trial to exhaustion” in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. He presented, “Mental Training: Magic or Physiologic Reality — The Role of Mental Training in Improving Performance” at the American College of Sports Medicine in Denver with Damien Ureste ’23.
Meredith Whitnah (sociology) spoke about “Pursuing Justice: How Theology and Race Intersect to Shape Organizations’ Actions Against Apartheid” and “Theory in Practice: Reimagining ‘Sociological Theory’” at the annual meetings of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the American Sociological Association, respectively — both in Philadelphia.
Paul Willis (English) has six poems included in “Taking Root in the Heart: A Collection of Thirty-Four Poets from ‘The Christian Century.’” With Leslie Leyland Fields, he co-edited “A Radiant Birth: Advent Readings for a Bright Season,” published by InterVarsity Press.